LitRPG question

[AnkaNix]

I'm writing a LitRPG and wanted to know what common mistakes should be avoided.

Note: No romance. Female Elf MC. Inspired from Tensura and Overlord.

 

[Eldoria]

Hardcore LitRPG or Subtle LitRPG?

 

[Deltvin]

I'm writing a LitRPG and wanted to know what common mistakes should be avoided.

Note: No romance. Female Elf MC. Inspired from Tensura and Overlord.

Remember to write the numbers in Excel to keep track

 

[AnkaNix]

Remember to write the numbers in Excel to keep track

I see. Thanks.

Hardcore LitRPG or Subtle LitRPG?

The system is important, it appears moderately in the early chapters; but appears only once in a few chapters later. The story focuses on character development, side characters and reluctant Kingdom building.

 

[Eldoria]

The system is important, it appears moderately in the early chapters; but appears only once in a few chapters later. The story focuses on character development, side characters and reluctant Kingdom building.

What I mean is, what kind of litRPG is in your fiction? There's a big difference between pure litRPG (hardcore) and subtle litRPG. Hardcore litRPG is obviously too mechanical, based on statistics. It almost feels like a game rather than fiction. While subtle litRPG simply borrows RPG elements as a power system: cultivation, jobs and classes, unique skills, mana, and backslash... all of these elements are organically integrated into the world.

 

[FRWriter]

I see. Thanks.

The system is important, it appears moderately in the early chapters; but appears only once in a few chapters later. The story focuses on character development, side characters and reluctant Kingdom building.

Please do yourself a favor and start with a SIMPLE system. Even if it's comically simple. It will get VERY VERY complicated. If you overdo it with the numbers and the amount of stats/skills, you will suffer and will probably give up because it all gets too much.

Work with VERY small numbers and only add tiny marginal improvements.

 

[expentio]

Not exactly writing those myself, but stuff I noticed:

1. Messing up the numbers. Of course, that goes also for losing track of them, but I mean this more as in having a concept that works for the world.
Numbers should go up (Although, alternatively, your system could just revolve around skills, like in "Dungeon Scholar" on RR), but you should have a sense of how quick they'd reasonably go up, and how this translates into actual ability. It's, for example, problematic if there are literal gods walking the lands and no public order system can put a stop to them.
2. Try to avoid completely OP.
Even max-level characters should fear a dangerous situation or assassination. If their Health Points are just too high to get damaged, it seems like the physical reality is just no longer a thing, which also takes any stakes.
3. Find a reasonable leveling system that should not just include killing.
If you think about it, a world that only relies on killing to increase levels would be bound to eradicate its own ecosystem. There's no explanation why there would be strong mammals. Or crafters who only level up if they kill. Doesn't make sense. ("Core .001" had a fascinating level system for crafters, where the craftsman would level from the use and appreciation their product gets.)
Yet even guardsmen should have a way to remain at least somewhat competitive that doesn't require them to become mass murderers.
4. MC becoming genocidal in their pursuit for power. If they start killing without a second thought, and proceed doing so, they're pretty much psychopaths, and it's questionable what kind of reader would want to be their audience.
5. How is the lvl-system part of the world? How does it affect it? It's magic of a sort, and therefore intrinsic part of the world that influences everything, and therefore should not just be accessory, but the central angle the world revolves around in nature, politics, social relations. There's no part that's unaffected.

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

The most numbery numbers book still can't shake the suspension of disbelief. The numbers don't matter, ultimately. The average and even dedicated readers won't bother to check the authors math at the end of the day. So, write the strength as how strong you want it to be.

If the inspiration is Overlord and Tensura, it's just regular magic with more modern categories. Broad encompassing schools of devotion but instead of mystical names denoting them, they're A, B, C, 1, 2, 3, Tier, Grade, Realm, etc. Slap on some fancy style name into specific spells that resemble the character that is being used and voila. Taking the magic out of magic and making it more millennial with a brutalist aesthetic.

 

[AnkaNix]

What I mean is, what kind of litRPG is in your fiction? There's a big difference between pure litRPG (hardcore) and subtle litRPG. Hardcore litRPG is obviously too mechanical, based on statistics. It almost feels like a game rather than fiction. While subtle litRPG simply borrows RPG elements as a power system: cultivation, jobs and classes, unique skills, mana, and backslash... all of these elements are organically integrated into the world.

Oh, no. It's nothing like a game. There are very simple things. Not mechanical. I honestly dislike Cultivation.

You could think about Failure Frame as an example.

Please do yourself a favor and start with a SIMPLE system. Even if it's comically simple. It will get VERY VERY complicated. If you overdo it with the numbers and the amount of stats/skills, you will suffer and will probably give up because it all gets too much.

Ikr. I made a system with only a few things and the max is four digits, anything above it would be stuck at 9999, so no worries about losing track.

Work with VERY small numbers and only add tiny marginal improvements.

Alright.

Not exactly writing those myself, but stuff I noticed:

1. Messing up the numbers. Of course, that goes also for losing track of them, but I mean this more as in having a concept that works for the world.
Numbers should go up (Although, alternatively, your system could just revolve around skills, like in "Dungeon Scholar" on RR), but you should have a sense of how quick they'd reasonably go up, and how this translates into actual ability. It's, for example, problematic if there are literal gods walking the lands and no public order system can put a stop to them.
2. Try to avoid completely OP.
Even max-level characters should fear a dangerous situation or assassination. If their Health Points are just too high to get damaged, it seems like the physical reality is just no longer a thing, which also takes any stakes.
3. Find a reasonable leveling system that should not just include killing.
If you think about it, a world that only relies on killing to increase levels would be bound to eradicate its own ecosystem. There's no explanation why there would be strong mammals. Or crafters who only level up if they kill. Doesn't make sense. ("Core .001" had a fascinating level system for crafters, where the craftsman would level from the use and appreciation their product gets.)
Yet even guardsmen should have a way to remain at least somewhat competitive that doesn't require them to become mass murderers.
4. MC becoming genocidal in their pursuit for power. If they start killing without a second thought, and proceed doing so, they're pretty much psychopaths, and it's questionable what kind of reader would want to be their audience.
5. How is the lvl-system part of the world? How does it affect it? It's magic of a sort, and therefore intrinsic part of the world that influences everything, and therefore should not just be accessory, but the central angle the world revolves around in nature, politics, social relations. There's no part that's unaffected.

I see! Thanks. FMC levelled up by surviving in an island and developed skills for venturi, she wants isolation. At present, she has to protect a family otherwise she will be punished by the system (more stuff involved.). Levelling up works for everyone, though only the FMC can utilise the system and see others' numbers.

Now, building a safe place and protecting people, politics, strategies are more important rather than brute killing.